Uncharted Movie: Bryan Cranston Being Considered For Key Role

Bryan Cranston is being considered for a key role in the Uncharted video game movie adaptation that is currently being developed by Sony. The project has gone through a number of directors (including, David O. Russell, Neil Burger and Seth Gordon) and some would-be stars (most famously, Mark Wahlberg) at this point, but has yet to make its way past the early stages of pre-production. In its current iteration, the Uncharted film has Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s Tom Holland set to star as a young version of the globe-trotting treasure hunter and lead of the original Uncharted games, Nathan Drake.

According to That Hashtag Show, Cranston is being considered for a “large supporting role” in Uncharted that may or may not be that of Sully. The Breaking Bad star is much older than either of Holland’s own picks for the role, which leads That Hashtag Show to speculate that he could be up to play another character in the film altogether – namely, the movie’s (for now) under-wraps villain.

Young Nathan Drake and Sully from the Uncharted video games

Cranston is not stranger to playing crusty mentors in franchise fare, being fresh off his turn as Zordon in the Power Rangers movie reboot. At the same time though, the actor is well outside the age range that Holland has suggested Sully will occupy in the Uncharted movie. Nathan Drake’s mentor is also known for being just as physically adept and capable as his protege, further suggesting that the film version of the character will be someone closer to Holland’s age bracket that Cranston.

With that in mind, the idea of Cranston playing an older-than-expected version of Nathan’s world-savvy teacher/father figure sounds just as promising as the actor lending his acting chops to the role of the movie’s villain. Given the Indiana Jones vibe that Uncharted is going for, a baddie that’s both genuinely menacing yet over the top is called for and would be something that’s very much in Cranston’s established wheelhouse, as an actor.

Holland will begin filming the untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel by mid-2018 for a summer 2019 release date and is currently working on the similarly-untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers 4 for a May 2019 theatrical release. That means that the Uncharted movie could begin production as soon as early 2018, in order to accommodate its star’s busy schedule and take advantage of the limited amount of time that he will have free in-between MCU adventures over the next year. Cranston should be available to work on the film if that happens, so it’s plausible that we will be getting some confirmation of his involvement (or lack thereof) with Uncharted in the foreseeable future.